1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an injection molding apparatus and, in particular, to a non-linear multi-cavity injection molding apparatus having several position and or angle adjustable manifold blocks and nozzles.
2. Related Art
Injection molding systems may be made out of a single block or single piece manifold and this may be called a unitary manifold. Also the injection molding systems are in some instances made out of a manifold assembly that includes several identical or almost identical manifold blocks that are connected or linked between them in several ways. These multi block manifolds do not include means to vary the angular position between the manifold blocks and thus the angular position of the nozzles coupled to these manifolds cannot be adjusted.
Injection molding is being used to make larger and larger components, particularly in the automotive industry. In addition to considerably increasing the size of the melt channel and the length of the nozzles, this has led to the use of systems in which several nozzles extend from an elongated manifold made of a single manifold block or several manifold blocks to a single mold cavity. Further, the part shapes are often complex which requires the mold gates that delimit the mold cavity to be located at varying heights and angles relative to the manifold.
In order to accommodate multiple nozzles extending at different angles relative to the manifold, a high level of tooling accuracy in the mold is necessary. In some applications, nozzles were simply bolted at different angles into place on a side of the manifold. Some of these known solutions typically included manifolds and nozzles that were custom designed for each application, which had the further disadvantage that set up was often difficult and time consuming.